


Tension

by sarabethloves



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: F/M, Unresolved Sexual Tension, cabin in the woods, cliche subplot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-11
Updated: 2019-08-11
Packaged: 2020-08-18 19:47:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20197138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarabethloves/pseuds/sarabethloves
Summary: Through Fuhrer Grumman’s mischievous plotting, Roy and Riza find themselves in yet another dicey situation, where the tension between them becomes to hard to ignore.





	Tension

“I’m going to murder the fuhrer.”

“You of all people should know how treasonous of a statement that is, sir.”

“Yeah, and like last time, I don’t really give a damn.”

Riza Hawkeye could barely contain the roll of her eyes at her superior’s words. As usual, he was taking a small situation and making it more dramatic than it needed to be. She was annoyed with Fuhrer Grumman too, but certainly not enough to turn Amestrian traitor…for the second time.

Colonel Mustang leaned into his subordinate a touch more than was strictly necessary as the sight of their lone cabin in the woods came into view. His arm was flung across her shoulders while his other hand was held to his right side, attempting to stop the steady stream of blood from further ruining his shirt.

A “team building exercise” was what the mischievous fuhrer had called it when he summoned the bulk of Mustang’s team into his office in Central last week. The group was thoroughly immersed in preparations for their move to East City (and their superior’s subsequent promotion to Brigadier) and had not been expecting such a large change of plans. Fuhrer Grumman had specifically arranged for their group to spend a week buried in the middle of a forest outside Central with only a secluded log cabin to call home. They were instructed to complete certain exercises and tasks each day, with the hopes of strengthening their bonds even more so than they already had.

But Mustang knew what this was really all about. Grumman was never without some kind of ulterior motive, and while the disgruntled colonel could only guess at what it was this time around, he would not fall so easily into his boss’s trap.

They were in the middle of some odd version of capture the flag when this particular accident happened. Mustang was honestly embarrassed to admit it at all. It certainly wasn’t his most graceful moment. He could’ve easily brushed the whole thing aside if it weren’t for the bleeding wound in his side. He hadn’t seen the sudden drop before him, too busy muttering angrily to himself about the stupidity of whatever game they were forced to play. When his foot stepped on nothing but air, the veteran colonel had been sent tumbling. Again, he could’ve brushed it aside with nothing more than minor cuts and bruises, but a sharp rock sticking up out of the ground had sliced a nasty gash across his abdomen on his way down. Needless to say, when he’d gotten up wincing and cursing only to find his shirt soaked in blood, his lieutenant (the only one with him, as they had made their own team together) went into a tizzy.

She led him back to the cabin while he plotted his murder of their fuhrer the whole time. Both colonel and lieutenant were relieved to finally see their home base come in to view.

Riza opened the door to the small, quaint building and practically deposited her superior on the couch in the living room. She went off to find supplies to clean and dress the wound, all the while Roy tentatively attempted to get comfortable from where he sat. His eyes looked down at his red soaked shirt and he sighed. Weeks away from brigadier-general and a _rock_ is what took him down.

Hawkeye came back with some towels in hand and sat herself on the coffee table in front of the couch. Even though they were as secluded as they could possibly be, the log cabin Grumman had arranged for them was actually quite nice. It had a spacious living room and kitchen area, with a back bedroom full of bunk beds for the team to sleep on. Havoc and Fuery had gone on and on about how cool it was for them to be doing something like this, while the rest of the team had their own opinions on their situation. Mustang was the only one who actually voiced them, of course.

Mustang’s eyes turned to his lieutenant and he lifted an eyebrow as he watched her shake her head, before she dipped one of the small towels in a bowl of water she had procured out of nowhere. Without any warning she grabbed his blood-soaked hand and began washing it with a strange kind of precision. “Honestly sir…I would think by now you would know to look where you’re going.”

His face scrunched up in annoyance. “Hey…don’t pin this one all on me. If it weren’t for Grumman and his stupid ‘team building excercise’, we wouldn’t have even been out there in the first place.”

Riza tossed the now red-soaked towel to the side before she picked up another one. “Yes, I’m well aware of your feelings on the matter, Colonel. You were practically cursing the fuhrer on your way down the mountain.”

Mustang’s expression twisted further. “We need to come up with a better story to tell the rest of the team when they get back. I have a feeling if they knew the truth, they’d never let me hear the end of it.”

Possibly because they were alone, Riza let out an uncharacteristic smirk at that. “And what makes you so certain _I _won’t ever let you hear the end of it.”

Roy was in the process of coming up with a witty response to that when he immediately froze as his lieutenant’s hands went to the buttons of his shirt. Sure, he knew _why_ she was doing it, but the way she started unbuttoning the ruined fabric without even realizing what she was doing had him instantly stilled.

Riza had gotten about halfway down when she stopped as well, almost as if she had suddenly realized how forward she was being. Her eyes widened before they lifted to meet her superior’s. It was silent a moment as the pair awkwardly stilled before the lieutenant managed to find her voice. “I-I…need to take a better look at it, sir. If that’s…alright with you.”

The uncertainty and breathlessness with which she spoke only served to rub the colonel the wrong way. Things had been..a bit tense between the two of them ever since they returned to work after the Promised Day. Roy knew that what they had gone through together that day, and in their time of recovery, was not what they were used to. Lots of things had been said, but even more things were left unaddressed. They were still able to find their work rhythm, but there were times like now where they just…stopped. When the feelings ruminating between them grew to be more overwhelming than either of them were prepared for.

Roy knew how to handle these situations, though. He had started to consider himself somewhat of an expert given how often they were happening recently. He had found the best way to keep them from being too serious was to revert back to his well-practiced personality. He let out a lazy smirk and replied, “At least offer to buy me a drink first.”

The lieutenant yanked the next button out with a little more force than was necessary as her eyes narrowed into slits. “Very funny, sir,” she replied in an annoyed voice before she continued down the row of buttons and pulled the two sides of his shirt apart and off his shoulders.

She leaned down to get a better look at the gash, wincing through her teeth at the sight of it. Her fingers gently probed around the edges before she dipped one of the towels in the water and wiped away the residual blood and debris.

The colonel tensed as she worked, the stinging sensation becoming too strong to ignore. Riza Hawkeye certainly was a gentle woman in some ways, but a pragmatic military officer in others. She worked quietly, yet a bit more aggressively than Roy would have liked.

He watched as her face contorted and she sighed. “It’s pretty deep, sir. I’m not an expert, but I think it needs at least a few stitches.”

The colonel let out a disapproving noise. “Where the hell am I supposed to get stitches? We’re miles away from the closest town, and the nearest hospital is three towns over from that.”

Riza clicked her tongue as she thought about this. She set her towel aside and stood to her feet. “I think I remember seeing a first aid kit under the sink when we got here. There might be supplies in there.” The lieutenant walked to the kitchenette in the corner of the room as Roy turned to look at her incredulously.

“And what if there is? Do you plan to do it yourself? Did you go and get a medical degree that I wasn’t aware of?”

Successfully finding the kit under the sink, Riza walked back over to the couch and began perusing its contents. “Oh, good, there is a suture kit in here,” she commented, ignoring his earlier question as she set it aside and began looking for more supplies in the kit.

“Lieutenant?” Mustang asked again, his voice unsure.

Surprising him, Riza let out a small smile. She pulled out a package of sterile gloves and a bandage wrap before answering him. “Suturing is a good survival skill to learn. It can come in handy on the battlefield.”

Mustang eyed her skeptically. “Right, because every soldier has the time to stop and stitch up his buddy in the heat of battle.”

Riza rolled her eyes at her superior before she flashed him a pointed look. “Colonel…do you want me to stitch this up or would you rather let it get infected and wind up in the hospital for weeks only to miss your promotion ceremony?”

Ah, that was his lieutenant, always knowing exactly what to say to shoot straight for his heart. He ignored her pointed look and attempted to seem put upon and indecisive. “Fine…just don’t mess it up too badly.”

She smiled at him again before she opened the kit up and slipped the gloves on. “I’ll try and make it look as pretty as possible, but I make no promises. Go ahead and lie down, sir.”

Mustang warily did as he was told, his voice becoming even more apprehensive. “Tell me, Dr. Hawkeye. Does that suture kit happen to come with any anesthetic?”

Riza’s smile only grew and the colonel bristled at the sight of it. “Alas, no, sir. Still, I think a _big, strong man_ like yourself can handle a few pricks,” she spoke in a low tone as she grasped the edge of the suture with her scissors and readied herself to begin.

Everyone always thought Riza Hawkeye was passive and quiet, but Roy knew she could be downright evil when she wanted to be. Apprehensively staying quiet, the colonel attempted to relax as she started.

He couldn’t contain the winces and the sharp intakes of breath as his subordinate quite literally sewed his skin back together. He was rather surprised at how sure of herself she seemed to be. She had so many random skills that she would showcase whenever she pleased, and this was definitely one of them. Attempting to get his mind off the pain, Roy asked, “So, where the hell did you learn to do this? I certainly don’t remember taking a suture class at the academy.”

She continued to work diligently, but Riza still managed to answer him in a self-assured tone. “A friend of mine at the academy was a nurse before she joined the military. We were on a training exercise when one of our teammates got injured and she had to do this out in the field. Once we were done, she taught us all how to do it. I’ve never really used it until now.”

Roy scoffed. “That’s reassuring.”

“You’re_ fine_, sir,” she spoke in a firm, though no less amused, voice.

They lapsed into silence after that, as Roy tried not to seem like too much of a wimp from the pain (this really hurt far more than it should) and Riza set herself to her task with the same precision and expertise that he was used to from her.

After what felt like an eternity, Riza used the cutting part of the scissors to snip the ends of the sutures and admired her work proudly. “There, you can relax now, sir. No impromptu hospital runs for you today.”

“Thank goodness,” he answered, only somewhat sarcastically, as his lieutenant cleaned up the wound and grabbed the bandage wrap.

“Sit up,” she instructed plainly, as she unwound the bandage and Roy tentatively arose. She leaned in close to him as her hands started to wind the wrap around his midsection. Again, the spark of tension flared up within the colonel as his lieutenant’s face was dangerously close to his own for the purpose of her task. She worked quietly, but the colonel couldn’t help but let his eyelids lower and his face lean in a touch more than was strictly professional.

She attached the end of the bandage, and admired her work proudly…before her eyes rose to meet his and immediately she froze in place.

The content smile dropped and her eyes widened slightly. Roy knew it was foolish of him to let himself do this…to look at her like she was the only woman in the world and he wanted nothing more than to treat her as such…in every possible sense. He knew these moments where they found themselves falling into roles they were not allowed to have were becoming more and more common. He could try and brush them all aside, which he frequently did, but they_ both_ knew what it meant.

The fact that they were alone in a secluded cabin in the middle of the woods while their teammates wouldn’t be back for hours had suddenly become far more dangerous.

Riza’s mouth dropped slightly and her breaths began to brush lightly across his face. Their lips were frighteningly close and their gazes became even more hazy. Riza’s eyes flashed briefly to Mustang’s lips and the small act nearly had him grabbing her and throwing her beneath him on the couch.

Despite the immense and innumerable consequences, Roy Mustang almost did as much before something snapped within his subordinate and she quickly stood to her feet, her eyes looking at anything but his own.

“You should get some rest, sir. The others will be back later and you know they’ll all want a full update.” In an effort to get her mind off whatever the hell just happened, Riza began furiously cleaning up and organizing the first aid supplies. Roy lifted an eyebrow when he noticed a slight tremor in her hands. He certainly wasn’t the only one as heavily affected by these little moments of theirs.

“R-right,” he let out breathlessly, attempting to bring his mind back from outer space. He tentatively stood to his feet and grabbed his ruined shirt. As Riza returned the kit to where she had found it and mindlessly started washing the measly amount of dishes in the sink, Mustang slowly made his way to the bedroom, his mind buzzing.

If this was how it was going to be between them from now on…he knew they were destined for a collision course.

_Damn Grumman_, Roy thought bitterly as he sat down heavily on his bunk. _Secluded cabin in the middle of the woods so me and his granddaughter can sneak away together. He’s too smart for his own good._

After that little moment, Roy Mustang now knew exactly why Grumman had dragged them all out here. He hoped his teammates returned sooner rather than later. He’d even detail the entire embarrassing story of how he got this wound in his side if it meant he and his subordinate wouldn’t be caught within their own tension again.

Roy rubbed his temples. It was going to be a long week.


End file.
